The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (http://www NULL.hud NULL.gov) encourages businesses located in the 30 Empowerment Zones (EZs) and 40 Renewal Communities (RCs) across the nation to take advantage of unused tax credits called the EZ Employment Credit and the RC Employment Credit (http://portal NULL.hud NULL.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/comm_planning/economicdevelopment/programs/rc). Worth up to $3,000 per EZ resident and up to $1,500 per RC resident, these credits are only available to businesses having worksites located in federally designated areas and that have hired employees residing in designated areas. Unused tax credits are also available to the EZ/RC business for employees who are no longer employed by that business provided the former employee has met the specific tenure requirements. The application of the tenure requirements means that the employment credits are available for both part-time and full-time employees as long as they have been employed by the employer for at least 90 days.

Even though the EZ/RC programs have expired, there is still an opportunity to take advantage of the unused EZ and RC Tax Credits, but there is a limited time for businesses to seize upon this opportunity. EZ/RC businesses can generate refund checks by amending their prior year tax returns. As of September 2012, an EZ and RC business has less than 6 months to amend its tax return for 2009.

To learn more about this opportunity, read illustrative examples, and see contact information, click here for HUD’s full announcement (http://portal NULL.hud NULL.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=EZRCunusedtaxemployment NULL.pdf) (PDF).